5X5 Super Deluxe Pizza

Sometimes an extravagant, once-in-a-while, homemade, super deluxe thin crust pizza is the only thing that will fill the bill, and it isn’t something you can order from the local pizza shop. This one is special. It is substantial. It is a party of flavors that burst to life in your mouth. And, it is super easy to put together. Five meat flavors, and five types of cheese with a homemade pizza sauce that delivers intense tomato flavor to a ready-to-top pizza crust.

The SauceThe recipe for this sauce is located here. You can, of course, use any pizza sauce you prefer. Ours has a deep, complex, tomato flavor derived from a base of dense tomato paste, onion, garlic, Italian seasoning, and smokey Paprika, finished with Parmesan cheese. The beauty of pizza is that you can choose whether to use store bought, or put some love into making your own. For this pie we started with a Ultra Thin, Ready to Top, pizza crust from the store, and heated it for about 15 minutes at 425 degrees (F) to melt the toppings together.

The MeatsMeat selection for the pizza is, of course, a matter of taste. For ours, we cooked bacon to the crispy stage, so we could later crumble it. We also cooked a half pound of ground beef seasoned with salt and pepper, and a half pound of ground pork, seasoned with a level teaspoon each of Italian Seasoning, onion and garlic powders, and worcestershire sauce. We also stewed, then drained, a handful of mushrooms in beef stock to intensify the beef flavor in the pie.

The Meat LayerThe meat layer is a thing of beauty for meat lovers. It starts off with a layer of pepperoni, topped with seasoned ground beef, Italian flavored ground pork, crispy bacon crumbles, and finished with the mushrooms stewed in beef stock. We then topped this layer with sliced black olives and thin sliced green bell pepper. Any veggies you like could finish this layer with just the flavors you prefer.

The CheeseWe always order extra cheese when we buy a pizza, so it only makes sense that we would use multiple cheeses on our own pie. We used a packaged Mexican blend of Cheddar, Monterey Jack, Asadero, and Queso Quesadilla, from the diary section of the grocery store, and crowned that with a big handful of shredded whole milk Mozzarella.

As you can see, the ingredients stack up high into a mouth-watering blend of our favorite combinations. Flatbread embellished with toppings dates back to antiquity, when any manner of combinations were used to add flavor. This pie certainly does that well, and your own favorites can be combined to create a pizza that boldly becomes your own homemade classic.